true lol…I feel like a great home environment can pump u up and energize u as a player TC with all the empty seats and weak crowd…Barclays might have been even worse because all tho it never looked as empty as TC, the Nets crowd really sucks and sometimes half the arena is cheering for the other team Nets would have KD and Harden on the court, and Kevon Looney would be getting bigger cheers
As great of a home court it is, it is 100x worse when someone is playing poorly. Harden gonna take next season off for mental health if he doesn't play all-world in Philly.
Roberson was one year a DPOY candidate before injury, no one in the history of NBA other than Hakeem is more than twice better than him defensively, and Ben is not even close. I am certainly not the among the ones who ignores what Simmons does well, I even advocated getting him in Harden's trade (given the team doesn't have championship aspiration and can't realistically get there in 5 years). The thing is, if a player's flaw is so bad that it keeps him from being playable, it doesn't matter what he does well. Roberson is a much much better shooter than Simmons, whose shooting capability is on the same level as Clint Capela, except that Capela can hit free throws at a much higher rate than Simmons when getting hacked, and Capela is an effective roll man catching lops (Simmons can't be played as a big in offense, Philly experimented with that and failed miserably). It doesn't matter what teammates Simmons has if he can only shoot 30% from the free throw line when getting hacked. It sets the upper limit of offensive efficiency for the entire team (0.6 points per possession, which is more than 40% worse than the league's worst). It's fine that a player can't make 3s, it's not if he can't make free throws. Also, shooting is not the only problem Simmons has. He doesn't have any reliable offensive weapons in a half court situation. He brings value to the offense in transition, but Nets have to accept the fact that, when he is on the floor, Nets will be playing 4 v 5 in half court offense all the time. People here probably don't watch the 76ers playoffs, but at least we know what Lakers did to Westbrook in the 2020 playoffs. It's only going to be worse with Simmons, because Russ is a much better shooter (ironically) and driver than Simmons is.
I think who won the trade is a silly question to begin with. In my opinion, four parties involved all got what they wanted, it's a all win situation. For Simmons, his career in the 76ers already ended, in Nets, at least he can play, and it'll be easier to cover some of his flaws because Nets has more offensive power. For the Nets, they addressed their No.2 risk in the near future, that is losing Harden for nothing (No.1 is Kyrie's availability and No. 3 is Durant's injury). While I don't think Simmons would help much in the playoffs, and their roster certainly gets worse, if the fits are right, Simmons can at least win them some games in the regular season, to buy Durant some rest time to reduce the risk of injury and be fresher in the playoffs. Drummond (who is very impactful defensively this year) and Curry (Nets lacks shooting when Harris is hurt) are all good additions, and the two FRPs they got opens the possibility of adding quality players via trading. For the Sixers, they gave up minimum assets to acquire an all star, who in ideal situation can get back to MVP level. The fact that they retain both Maxey and Thybulle is just crazy. For Harden, what he needs to decides it whether he wants to bet the high probability of wasting this year for the future uncertainty of the big 3 truly playing together. Harden decide he is declining and can't take the risk. 76ers is definitely a better place for him to contend for the chip this year (better chemistry, much less uncertainty), the future is hard to say, but Harden couldn't afford wasting another year while Kyrie and KD certainly can. I like the trade for all the parties, let's see how it plays out. A 76ers and Nets playoffs match up would be interesting to watch.
Some writers who know a lot more about bbl than me a picking them to come out of the East… I honestly cannot see them beating Milwaukee. I just don’t see how. Maybe I’m missing something, but I’ll be shocked.
If you were to look at this as a three-team trade (albeit spread over a year): -Philadelphia won the trade short term -Houston got the best of it, long term -Brooklyn got screwed Brooklyn basically traded their foreseeable draft future for Ben Simmons and Seth Curry. Not ideal. Maybe Ben Simmons does a 180 and becomes the next Magic Johnson. Stranger things have happened. But right now, it seems Houston came out of this ok, especially considering our time of real contention was already over, even before the Harden trade. Harden looks to be on the downslope of his career. Better this then what happened at the end of Barkley, Pippen, Drexler, and Olajuwon’s careers. Or for that matter, Yao and McGrady.
Philly fans are notorious of being unforgiving. It'll be interesting how they will react when one of Harden's mysterious disappearing acts happens.
since Ben Simmons was a complete zero for them and was never gonna play for them again, Philly essentially traded Seth Curry, Drummond, and 2 picks for James Harden significantly increasing their title odds the consensus seems to be that BK won this trade hands down tho
This whole idea that Simmons isn't playable at the end of games is make believe. I mean really, half of the Simmons hate is coming from him folding in clutch minutes, passing on lay-ups and bricking FTs in clutch minutes... I mean, Philly always played him at the end of games and were a play or two away from breaking through. I'm not sure where that is coming from, Ben Simmons always played at the end of games. Simmons stats on/off in lineups with Embiid did not have any issues scoring with Simmons in the game, some of the best lineups Philly had during those years. Like people are making stuff up making it like he's a net-negative for his teams. That simply wasn't true. He was a net positive, that's how you're able to trade him for James Harden because he wasn't so bad that he couldn't be played in the 4th, that's make believe stuff. It's more true to say that Harden struggles in swing playoff games than it is to say that Simmons can't be played in crucial minutes. It just is. You're making it sound like Roberson was actually a better player.. Roberson isn't a shooter at all, he shoots under 30% from three for his career, teams giving him space just like they do any non-shooter so that's irrelevant. Either a guy is a shooter that has to be respected or he isn't. It doesn't matter that Roberson shoots .150 from three and thus is better than Simmons that shoots .000 from three. They both not getting respected at the 3 point line, what does that matter? What matters is one guy can create for others and one can't. So one is infinitely more playable than the other guy that can't do that. Simmons isn't ruining an offense if he's surrounded by shooters, which the Nets have plenty of. The only issue the Nets will have is what they will do with really big teams and centers. Maybe the length of Simmons and Durant can make up for not having a defensive big or maybe it won't matter.
This trade reminds me of the 2011 Knicks. Amare was having an MVP year and he was surrounded by a caste of really good role players who complimented him well. Then they added a talented but narcisstic guy who's a poor fit named Carmelo Anthony and it discombobulated the team chemistry and they lost all momentum to end the season with an early exit in playoffs. I expect the same with Sixers adding Harden. Seth Curry is their glue guy. This addition also means fewer pieces that fit on the court with Embiid.
Are most people really saying that? I get the impression that most view this as a HUGE win for the Sixers and perhaps a win win for both teams since both exchange players who didn't want to play for their teams. IMO the Sixers greatly increased their title chances with this trade while the Nets dropped significantly (even tho I liked their roster). While I think Ben with KD, Irving, Harris, Curry, Mills and the rest of the Nets is an absolutely killer fit/team next year, there's huge questions this season about the availability of their key players. KD is still recovering from injury. Kyrie is still part time. Harris might require a 2nd surgery. Simmon's physical and mental condition is a big question mark. Perhaps a checked out Harden wouldn't have helped much, but it's still better than a Ben Simmons who hasn't played all year. So while the NETS could be theoretically be very good, practically, they've got big issues to resolve simply to get on the floor.
yeah, I see more people saying that BK won this trade usually some sort of argument that they’ve now shored up their issues (defense with Ben Simmons, shooting with Curry, big man with Drummond + just adding more depth in general) plus added 2 picks to use to acquire additional help in the future while Harden is clearly declining
